Oh, brother!
Glenn Howard is happy for his older brother Russ, who won an Olympic gold medal as part of Brad Gushue's Canadian men's curling team from St. John's. And, coincidentally, Glenn happened to be curling in a cashspiel the past few days in St. John's while Russ made history.
"It was phenomenal for my brother and for curling and for Newfoundland collectively," Glenn said in a phone interview yesterday. "What a great win and I couldn't be more proud to be Canadian and to be Russ' brother. For him to win that was just incredible and then being out here in St. John's was kind of ironic.
"We walked into a restaurant after (Gushue's team won the gold-medal game) and people gave us a standing ovation. It was just unbelievable. Everyone was just so happy."
As of late yesterday Glenn still hadn't been able to phone his brother because of difficulties making contact and didn't want to email him. Glenn is scheduled to leave St. John's early today to return home to Midland, while his brother is scheduled to arrive back to St. John's later in the day.
Glenn, a two-time world champion playing third for his brother when he was based out of Penetanguishene, will skip Ontario's entry for the first time in the Brier, beginning March 11 in Regina. The Howard foursome, which includes Richard Hart, Craig Savill and Brent Laing, from Coldwater will have an abundance of story lines besides the connection to Russ. Hart is a silver medallist with Mike Harris' foursome from the 1998 Olympics. This also will be Hart's first trip to the Brier after four provincial runnerup finishes.
"The experience of the Olympics was great and obviously for him getting to his first Brier was huge," Glenn said. "It's kind of a bizarre way how everything's transpired, but we just can't wait to get out there."
Glenn doesn't feel any extra pressure to win the Brier because of his brother's Olympic victory.
"It has nothing to do with me going to the Brier by any stretch of the imagination," he said. "From our perspective we're just so happy to go as a team. We've proven ourselves -- Rich and I -- as teammates for six years and with Brent and Craig the last two years as being one of the top teams in the world, as far as I'm concerned. We finally got a shot to go to the Canadian championship. We just can't wait to go."